When? Thursday, October 4th, 6pm Where? Parc Emilie Gamelin, corner of Berri and St. Catherine. Metro Berri. Bridget Tolley founded the March and Vigil in 2005, which happens every year on the anniversary of her mother’s Gladys Tolley’s death. Since then, the march has been organized all across the country on that day. In 2010, 86 marches were held in communities across Canada, the largest number yet, with one march being held as far away as Nicaragua, showing us that the problem of Indigenous women being disproportionately affected by violence is one of colonized Nations worldwide. The purpose of this event is to honour the memories of missing and murdered women and girls, raise awareness, and demand that the government support the actions of families and communities and restore research funding to Sisters in Spirit (SIS), an initiative of the Native Women’s Association of Canada which was responsible for conducting groundbreaking research between 2004 and 2010 on the now known-of cases. Although their work is far from finished, the government insists that action must take the place of research, and instead of funding the research, community work, and actions of SIS, are instead diverting resources to a generic RCMP-led missing persons database, as well as vastly facilitating police power to obtain warrants and to install wiretaps. Many believe that both of these police privileges will be used to further allow the government of Canada’s criminalization of Native communities rather than increasing the safety of Native women. The United Nations have been deliberating the carrying out of an investigation into Canada’s human rights abuses vis-a-vis this issue since last year but require the government’s participation to do so, something that is not forthcoming. Approximately 600 Native women have gone missing or have been murdered since roughly 1980 according to the Native Women’s Association of Canada. Other organizations and activists suspect that the actual number is as high as 3000. The reality is that Native women in Canada are at least five times more likely to die of violence than non-Native women. Racist and sexist government policies, stereotypes of Indigenous women, a lack of media attention, and police negligence all contribute to, and indeed perpetuate this violence as well as the general lack of data–also a form of violence in itself. While some media and public attention has been given to cases in Western Canada, Native women in Quebec have also been targeted. For instance, Gladys Tolley, in 2001, an Algonquin woman from Kitigan Zibi Anishnabeg was hit and killed by a Sûreté du Québec car. No one was ever held accountable, and all requests for independent investigations have been denied....

Saturday the 29th of September**, 10 am-5 pm on the 7th floor of Hall, at Concordia University, 1455 boulevard de Maisonneuve West The event will take place in two stages: a panel on Friday evening with indigenous women involved in resistance to colonialism, followed by an open forum on Saturday for sharing our strategies, with workshops and spaces for discussion. **If you already have a workshop you would like to present on Saturday, you will be able to propose it during the open forum. **The forum will serve to verbalize our paths of sharing and discussion, on an anti-capitalist and anti-colonial basis. * Since the beginning of 2012 a new plan for the colonization of the North American territory has been initiated: the Plan Nord. The political and capitalist class are attempting to sell a fantasy discourse, describing untouched territories that are ready to be developed, new frontiers to be expanded, and a quasi-mysterious space to be modeled to meet our desires. This is how they prepare for the cultural and environmental destruction of the peoples of the North. Throughout this same year, there were numerous acts of resistance by indigenous people against the Plan Nord and its specific projects, including foresty, hydroelectric dams, and mining. People are speaking up against the Plan Nord, among the Innu, the Algonquins, the Crees, and also the Atikamekw. As well, many events took place in the cities of the south, such as during the Salon du Plan Nord in Montreal, where there were moments of intense confrontation. The current motor of colonialism is called profit, and its principal movement is toward the concentration of wealth. Its motive is to dispossess the resources of the land, for investment in the tools of this dispossession: the state and the private-sector. In this way, the emergence of resistance to Plan Nord within the student movement was inevitable. To resist a project for the liberalization of the economy, it is necessary to talk about how we’re relating to the land and the people who live on it. We invite you to share your knowledge and your experiences, to build links that will allow us to better understand our strengths and weaknesses. We invite you to come share your...

Please Join Us for an Upcoming Panel Discussion on Friday September 28th, 2012 from 6:30- 8:30pm; Concordia University, SGW, 1455 de Maisonneuve West, H-110 Details Below Innu women speak out about the Plan Nord and violence against their communities. Activists will discuss their opposition to the massive industrial development plan being imposed on them by the government. They will speak about the impacts of the new infrastructure development north of the 49th parallel and its devastating cultural and environmental implications. Event will be in French with simultaneous translation to English. Événement aura lieu en français avec traduction simultanée en anglais. Wheelchair accessible, and childcare available with 48 hours notice. Presented by the 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy’s Missing Justice campaign (Justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women) in collaboration with Regroupement de solidarité avec les Autochtones, Alliance Romaine, PASC and the Anti-Colonial Solidarity Collective. With guest speakers Denise Jourdain, Élise Vollant & Ellen Gabriel: Élyse Vollant is an Innushkueu from the North Shore community of Uashat mak Maliotenam. She is a mother of eight and grandmother of two. Elise is against the Plan Nord for future generations and has fought against it as one of the women who walked from Uashat mak Maliotenam to Montréal for Earth Day. She was also one of twelve women who were imprisoned following the blockade of route 138 in March 2012. Denise Jourdain is a member of the Innu community of Uashat mak Mani-utenam, on the north shore of the St.Laurence River. She presently teaches the Innu language to students at Johnny Pilot primary school. Denise is a direct descendent of the Vachon and Jourdain families who fought to keep their territorial rights in the 1950′s, having defied municipal, governmental and ecclesiastical authorities. She too was imprisoned for having defended her people’s territorial rights in March 2012 during the blockade of route 138. Ellen Gabriel was well-known to the public when she was chosen by the People of the Longhouse and her community of Kanehsatà:ke to be their spokesperson during the 1990 “Oka” Crisis. For the past 22 years she has been a human rights advocate for the collective and individual rights of Indigenous peoples. In 2004, Ellen Gabriel was elected president of the Quebec Native Women’s Association a position which she held until December 2010. She believes that decolonization will be achieved by implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples with the full and effective participation of Indigenous peoples. She is an advocate for gender equity, the revitalization of Indigenous languages, culture, traditions and Indigenous governing...